Employers with significant casual workforces have been given a guided tour of new legislative filters for assessing whether proposed deals are genuinely agreed, in a FWC decision focussing on the Fair Work Act's "employed at the time" provision.
The FWC has refused to separate an NBN engineer involved in a dispute over allegedly unpaid hours from a manager held to have bullied him, instead ordering mediation after finding his own behaviour and "pedantic" approach is contributing to his problems.
CFMEU national leader Zach Smith is stepping back from his role as secretary of the under-administration construction division to focus on its Victorian branch, stating that while he is "willing to take responsibility for decisions I make", he "cannot be asked to take responsibility for decisions" that are not his.
A Canberra contractor that blocked CFMEU officials from investigating safety issues has been hit with higher penalties after conceding that a judge mistakenly bundled obstruction and misrepresentation breaches together when determining fines.
A training college must pay more than $8000 to an accounts manager reputedly made redundant in anticipation of laws restricting international student numbers that never passed.
The FWC has ruled that Coles unlawfully calculated long service leave payments based on a seven-day rather than five-day week, while acknowledging there is "room for debate" on the meaning of an "ordinary working day", particularly for workers with variable rosters.
The FWC has ordered former IR Minister and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's alma mater Xavier College to pay a teacher $14,000 for his unfair dismissal, ruling it harsh because he had never held another job and his messy desk, late marking and poor interactions with his colleagues did not justify his axing after 21 years of service.
In a significant decision the ETU describes as "deeply troubling", the Federal Court has found full-time agreement-covered FIFO electricians working on a Fortescue mine project do not accrue paid leave during their monthly "rest and recreation" off-swing.
In a decision illustrating the challenges of conducting cases involving remote Indigenous employers, the FWC has awarded $18,000 to a sacked chief executive after failing to engage the respondent in proceedings despite 14 phone calls, numerous emails and five notices sent by express post.
The FWC has found a cash-in-hand nanny an employee eligible to pursue an adverse action claim, finding that she did not have her own business and the parents of the children she cared for exerted a high degree of control over her work.
